---
title: Said he: “Monks, careless handling of property is like careless hand… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: Said he: “Monks, careless handling of property is like careless handling of deadly poison. Who acts: man, Monks. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 14, sentence 64

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Said he: “Monks, careless handling of property is like careless handling of deadly poison.

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**Who acts:** man, Monks · **What happens:** say, be, handle · **To what, where:** property · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, Monks), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg74064:14:69
# text = Said he: “Monks, careless handling of property is like careless handling of deadly poison.
1	Said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	Monks	monk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	careless	careless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	handling	handling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	property	property	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	like	like	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	careless	careless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	handling	handling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	deadly	deadly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Monks and careless handling of property |  |  |  |  | like careless handling; of deadly poison | tree rules |
| 3 | **handle** *in a quote* |  |  | property |  |  |  |  | nom handling «act transitive»: of=patient |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Project Gutenberg book 74064 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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